


Song From An American Movie

by leobrat



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2806142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leobrat/pseuds/leobrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title from the Everclear song of the same name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Song From An American Movie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Digs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Digs/gifts).



**_A Heart Full_ **

 

The second he sees Tami McIntyre, Eric Taylor is a goner. 

 

He’s heading out onto the field in Odessa, past their cheerleaders, and a long, wavy blond pony tail catches his eye. He trips over his own two feet (not the best entrance for a quarterback) and his coach screams at him twice to get his head out of his ass.

 

He still can’t take his eyes off that long, blond ponytail.

 

*

 

_“Unh-unh,” Eric grunts as Julie struts out of her room in a red dress that’s a little too low cut and red high heels that Tami never should have bought for her. With a glance behind him, he can see that his QB1’s tongue has rolled all the way out of his mouth, and is flopping around on his doorstep._

_“Oooookay, I’m just gonna have a word with lil’ Jules here,” Tami’s voice trills out behind her as she whirls their daughter around, straight back to her room and hopefully a different outfit. She shoots him a look over her shoulder before the door closes. She’s laughing at him._

 

*

 

**_Better Ideas_ **

 

Tami snuggles closer against Eric in their shared sleeping bag as the first pink rays of sunrise are coming up over the horizon at Lake Orion. He dozed off a little while ago. She’s never felt so happy. She’s never felt so safe.

 

*

 

_She’d made eight trips to the emergency room when Julie was a baby. Terrified, every time._

_But then, she’d always have Eric next to her, hand on her back, or holding their baby girl so she could speak with the doctors, or fetching her a cup of coffee._

_Gracie’s fever has broken and Tami is just sagged with relief getting her back out to the car, following _Glen_. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, and Tami is exhausted._

 

*

 

**_Seeing Other People_ **

 

Eric drops his bag in the hallway after a long, sweaty Saturday practice. His boys had played well the night before and a few of them were cocky. The head coach had made them do up-down’s until one of them puked. It made Eric is a little queasy himself.

 

“We’re in here, hon.”

 

He follows the smell of roasting chicken and root vegetables and there is his gorgeous wife, in the kitchen, fixing dinner. Her long blond hair is in a ponytail and he smiles to himself, thinking back on a clumsy kid who didn’t know his ass from his armpit. “Hey,” she grins at him, leaning over for a kiss. Her hands never stop chopping vegetables for salad.

 

Just beyond, at her dainty white tea table, Julie is holding court like a tiny princess as she pours ‘tea’ for her dollies and bears. Eric drops a gentle kiss on top of her golden head, plaited in two braids. “Hey, Monkey-Noodle,” he whispers, heart completely melted.

 

*

 

_Julie offers Eric the tiniest of waves when she passes him in the hallway._

 

*

 

**_Being Green_ **

 

Tami rolls another layer of duct tape on the box and grabs her sharpie to scribble _Kitchen Appliances- breakable_ across the top.

 

“Where do you want me next?” Eric is wiping an arm across his sweat-slick forehead. 

 

“You finish the garage?” she asks. He nods. “All right, start breaking down Julie’s playhouse.”

 

He nods again and silently heads off. He’s been only too helpful with this move. It’s their third in five years.

 

*

 

_Tami kicks off her high heels and almost cries in relief. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had believed with every fiber of her being that principals were supposed to wear heels every day, and now she curses the stupid, inconsequential rule she made up for herself and shared with no one._

_Eric peeks his head out from the hallway, sleepy-eyed, and waves, mouthing _’hi’_. That means Gracie hadn’t gone down easy and he daren’t risk waking her._

_“Again?” Tami mouths back, disappointed. Second night this week._

 

*

 

**_A Son_ **

 

Eric loosens his tie, exhaling sharply as he sinks onto the couch. Tami’s whispering to Shelley in the hallway as his sister-in-law packs up her bag and puts on her coat to leave.

 

“Well, she said Julie went out like a light,” Tami comes back around to the front of the couch, and sits up across from him, feet up. Her heels are gone and her hair is in a ponytail. Even her black dress looks more relaxed and casual and _comforting_ now that they’re in the quiet of their own home, in their own space.

 

Eric stares at her, without words, and she meets his gaze, letting her understanding wash over him. She turns and settles back against his chest, and he breathes easy into her hair. She takes the tumbler of scotch out of his hand (the ice is melting) and shares a sip.

 

*

 

_Eric watches Julie out of the corner of his eye as he cuts off another bite of chicken-fried steak. She is pushing green beans around her plate. She’d been the one to _ask_ her mother to make the double-battered, double-fried meat. _

_Eric meets Tami’s gaze across the table, and he can feel it between them, their hearts collectively breaking for their sensitive, sweet, beautiful girl, their first baby. The clock behind his wife reads 9:47, and Matt was meant to be here over an hour ago. He wishes there was a way to tell her that the boyfriend she knows will be a different person the next time she sees him- he’ll be a man, and any trace of that wide-eyed kid who fell for her so long ago (feels like forever) is going to be gone._

 

*

 

**_Always & Forever_ **

 

Julie is reading _MacBeth_ with her ankles crossed in the air, clad in those black Converse that she begged for, and got for Christmas. Tami wonders how much of Shakespeare her eleven-year-old is actually grasping, and how much she is reading it just to say she did.

 

Tami sucks in a deep breath when she hears the front door open and close and counts to ten before she turns to face her husband. She’ll see it the second she looks at him.

 

Eric actually does look a little guilty.

 

“We’re moving again,” she says, resigned.

 

*

 

_Tami waves off Eric as he honks the horn twice, backing out of the driveway. She can hear Gracie Belle’s favorite princess sing-along out the car window as they head down the street._

_She takes a long, savoring sip of her coffee in the crisp fall air. Their yard is littered with red and orange leaves and she lets the quiet beauty sink in before she has to face the day._


End file.
